With the dawn of the war, people and students staged massive protests both against ruthless dictators such as Khomeini, Beheshti and Rafsanjani, and against the country’s situation, which was getting worst day by day.
When Bani-Sadr was popularly elected as president of Iran, the power-hungry people realized that they could not revive a dictatorship should they be unable to prevent the people from supporting the president. That is why, as Rafsanjani himself has written in his memoirs, they began to hold secret meetings in which they sketched out and prepared plans for overthrow of Bani-Sadr who was supportive of the people and people’s rights.
Rafsanjani’s letters in 1979 and the letters written by Rafsanjani, Bahonar, Beheshti and Khamenei and Mousavi Ardebili in 1980, all testify to the fact that they wanted to convince Khomeini to establish a clerical dynasty (it has been confessed by Mousavi Ardebili).
As they have written in their letters to Khomeini, they considered Bani-Sadr as a bulwark against their plans for creation of tyrannical government known as seminary Islam (as it is narrated by Rafsanjani). They appeared to be successful in convincing Khomeini that Bani-Sadr’s presidency would endanger “Parliamentary Islam” and the guardianship of jurists.
At this stage, Khomeini and his agents used the Students Follower of Imam’s Path to seize the US embassy with the help of the Revolutionary Guard forces. Following that incident and in the wake of the fake first parliamentary election, they paved the ground for a coup against the Bani-Sadr’s government.
Before that to happen, it was necessary for them to close down the universities which used to form the most important bedrock of support for Bani-Sadr by that time. At that time “Ayat Cassette” was tangible evidence that the closure of universities was a very important step in the procession of gradual coup.
From today’s confessions of some members of the Muslim Students Followers of the Imam’s Path, it is clear that the so-called Cultural Revolution was suggested and put into effect by some members of Islamic Republic Party (Hasan Ayat and followers of Baghaee and Sayyed Zia) and assistance of individuals like Ahmadinejad.
They knew well that they could not carry out their plans for a coup against the Bani-Sadr government if the universities remained open. Therefore, they were looking for the right time to implement their plans and stage a coup against the Bani-Sadr government. To understand the plots they hatched, one has to refer to the statements made by Hasan Ayat, a UK agent, in the meetings with his confidants. In an interview he says, “a plan is so well made that Bani-Sadr can in no way survive. We are going to close down the universities.”